PA Bylaws and Membership Category Changes

A revision and restatement of the Bylaws of the Parapsychological Association has been published. Among the notable changes to the PA Bylaws are a description of the role and duties of the Executive Director, changes to how the Membership Committee reviews membership applications, and a reorganization of the PA’s membership categories.

A revision and restatement of the Bylaws of the Parapsychological Association has been published at the PA website at: http://www.parapsych.org/articles/1/2/bylaws_of_the_parapsychological.aspx. Among the notable changes to the PA Bylaws are a description of the role and duties of the Executive Director, changes to how the Membership Committee reviews membership applications, and a reorganization of the PA’s membership categories.

Previous to the Bylaws revision, the PA membership categories were Full Member, Associate Member, Honorary Member, Affiliate, Student Associate, and Student Affiliate. The PA Board voted to revise the membership categories in the interest of acknowledging that the PA is a membership-based organization, simplifying and reducing the number of membership levels, and establishing an appropriate level of membership for the general public. Below is a summary of the changes:

1. Full Members will now be referred to as Professional Members. 2. The category of Associate Membership will remain the same. 3. The category of Honorary Membership will remain the same. 4. Affiliates will now be referred to as Supporting Members. 5. Student Affiliates and Student Associates have been combined into the category Student Members, which will now encompass both high school and university students.

When discussing your PA membership, we request that you use the full title of your membership level (i.e. “Professional Member” or “Supporting Member” instead of just “Member”). If you feel that your revised membership category is not appropriate for your level of interest or engagement in the field of parapsychology, please contact the office at business@parapsych.org to inquire about moving to a different membership level.

Over the next few months, we will be editing our website and literature to reflect these changes, and we appreciate your patience as we make this transition. We also encourage you to invite members of the public who would enjoy our member benefits, such as Mindfield and the Journal of Parapsychology, to join the PA as a Supporting Member.

The Parapsychological Association is an international professional organization of scientists and scholars engaged in the study of psi (or 'psychic') experiences, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, psychic healing, and precognition. The primary objective of the PA is to achieve a scientific understanding of these experiences.

First established in 1957, the PA has been an affiliated organization of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) since 1969. The PA is a non-profit, non-adjudicating organization that endorses no ideologies or beliefs other than the value of rigorous scientific and scholarly inquiry.